Invitrogen has made its first foray into the next-generation sequencing field with an OEM agreement this week to supply Solexa with most of the reagents that its as-yet unreleased Genome Analysis System will use for sequencing, gene expression, and small RNA analysis applications.

The pact marks Invitrogen's first play in DNA sequencing in general and in the next-generation sequencing field in particular, but with a growing number of startups in the market the firm hopes to sign on additional partners.